Social & Behaviour Issues in Neurotypicals

Communication issues, unusual behaviours, and compliance acquiescence disorder

Photo by Pim Chu on Unsplash

Stop ignoring us

I‘ve been reading a couple of books, one of which was published in 2020, and the other in 2021.

Both of these recent academic books list issues with Autistic behaviours, and both refer to ABA as a “practice that can be helpful”, despite the fact that Autistic people themselves describe it as harmful and abusive.

Some of the “issues” listed are:

• Avoids or resists physical contact
• Cannot be comforted by others during distress
• Does not understand jokes, sarcasm, or teasing
• Flaps hands, rocks body, or spins self in circles
• Struggles with eye contact

I’m certainly not the first to see the irony in the fact that neurotypicals, who are a hot mess themselves, continue to use their neurotype as the gold standard, an ideal for which all others should strive.

We all have struggles, so perhaps we neurodivergent people can use the knowledge and training we’ve received over our collective lifetimes to help neurodivergent people become more “high…